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Sunday, 1 April 2012

Two Weeks Of Easter Fun - Day 1 - Spring Cleaning

Most of you are probably wondering why Two Weeks of Easter Fun, when there is only one week until Easter. Those of you who have read " About me " already know that I'm coming from Bulgaria, and we - Bulgarians are Orthodox Christians and as such we use the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian for our religious holidays. That's why there is a difference in the dates we celebrate Easter, not always, but most of the time...like this year.

The Catholic Easter is on April 8 and the Orthodox is on April 15. And because most of my readers and myself included, we will celebrate on April 15, and I'll be posting Easter related recipes, crafts and ideas a little bit longer. I don't promise but I'll do my best, and try to post everyday until Easter.

My first post in the "Two Weeks of Easter Fun" project is about something we all do this time of year, no matter what religion and nationality we have - Spring Cleaning.

I did a little research about the Spring cleaning, when it started for the first time, where it's coming from...

There are few different theories about it. Some suggest that the origins of spring cleaning date back to the Persian new year which falls on the first day of spring, and the week before the holiday, Iranians practice "khooneh tekouni" which literally means "shaking the house".

Another theory is that Spring cleaning comes from the ancient Jewish practice of thoroughly cleansing the home before one of the major Jewish holidays - Passover ( Pesach ), which is also a spring - time feast. On Passover, Jews are not only strictly forbidden to eat or drink anything that may have been leavened or fermented with yeast, but also keeping leavened food ( chametz ) in the house during the holiday is considered as a big affront in Jewish culture. The fact that even overlooked crumbs count make observant Jews conduct a thorough "spring cleaning" of their homes.

Another suggestion points Chinese culture as an originator of spring cleaning. Just before their new year, Chinese people clean their homes, believing that by doing so, they are getting rid of the bad luck and misfortune that may have accumulated during the previous year.

For me, and may be most of the Bulgarians, spring cleaning is a ritual closely related to Easter. That's why I found it to be a very appropriate start of my Easter project.

In my opinion, it is very difficult to give people advice about spring cleaning, because every household is different, just like the cleaning habits. So instead of sharing with you how I do my spring cleaning I'll show you the products I use for it ( and for my every day cleaning as well).

As you can see my cleaning products are all homemade. It's been almost two years, since I started gradually removing store bought chemical cleaning products from my house. It was the next logical step, after we started recycling, re-purposing and reusing everything that we can in our every day life. Not only as a gesture to the planet, but also as gesture to our own health. I don't want my post to be too serious, so I won't write about the damages of the cleaning products over the human health. Everyone has the right to choose how to live their life and I don't want to point fingers, but just share with you my choice.

White vinegar is my best cleaning friend. Because of its levels of acidity, it is effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs. It is very economical, environmentally friendly and most important it's not toxic. I use the all - purpose cleaner for almost everything. For those of you afraid of the smell, don't worry it dissipates very quickly. If you want to read more about cleaning properties of vinegar, check here.

Hydrogen Peroxide, again inexpensive, non - toxic and very practical. It is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Helps a lot when cleaning mold and mildew. Mix just the amount you are going to use right away, or keep your mix in dark bottle, because hydrogen peroxide breaks down quickly when exposed to light.

Like the all - purpose cleaner it uses white vinegar and works wonders with windows.

Last but not least - the good old baking soda. Same as white vinegar it is a multifunctional cleaner. I like having a box of baking soda in my cleaning basket. I use it mostly to clean the oven and the stove top, as well as for scrubbing the bottoms of my pots ( for me it's not rare to forget that I 'm cooking, you can imagine the rest).

Pretty much that's all I use to clean our little home. By using just those three simple products I have a clean, free of toxins and harmful chemical house, and save a lot of space and money. I'm trying to keep the house clean by doing little things every day and that helps me a lot when I do my spring cleaning.

For those of you who had the nerve to read the whole post I have a little gift. If you want to give a try to the homemade cleaning recipes and like my labels I have them here, waiting for you to print them.